Back in March Chris Andersson posted about Team Ziphius, who won Engadget's Insert Coin innovation competition with their FPV mobile-controlled aquatic drone. Since June 24 there is a Kickstarter project for the Ziphius.
Ziphius is the first app-controlled aquatic drone that plays augmented reality games and shows autonomous behaviors. A drone that responds to your smartphone or tablet (Android and iOS) commands in real-time. It allows you to see more than meets the eye and take pictures or videos of your aquatic experiences.
Specifications:
- 1 hour play time on a full battery
- 300 feet range
- Upload video's directly to YouTube or pictures to Twitter or Facebook
- Speed: 6 mph
- Equipped with 720p camera
- Always upright
- Adorable
A functional prototype does exist. There are some refinements needed that the team is working on, but they are ready for the next step, Industrial production. Therefore the designers of the Ziphius are looking for $ 25,000 in funds: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ziphius/ziphius-the-aquatic-drone
Comments
A submersible open source UAV project already exists http://openrov.com/ (for those asking about this feature). It's quite clear that such feature would require a much more expensive hardware kit.
Nice project
In general I like the idea. To convince me to back the project I´d like to see some on board footage (HD, which it should be).
Is this shown anywhere? I´m a little sceptical about the placement of the camera. If you try to look forward (FPV-style) you could get a problem with waves since the camera is close to the waterline.
@ Justin: Agreed, underwater would be even more fun
Entirely photographed using Instagram.
But can it 3D print?